Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Don't Divorce Us

by digby

Beltway elites almost always hate talk about messy civil rights issues and icky reproductive freedom policies because they just make social events so unpleasant. It get's so tiring listening to those people whine, whine, whine about being free and equal. Can't they just be patient and wait until the appropriate time instead of being so rude all the time?

But every once in a while you'll find one who takes the liberal side of one of these issues because their lives are somehow touched by an American with a problem. Every once in a while you'll see a hard core right winger who pushes funding for a particular health initiative because his granddaughter happens to get the disease or a mushmouthed centrist type who rails against police state tactics when his nephew is harassed by the cops.

Today we have Richard Cohen with a column about Rick Warren's anti-gay bigotry, which I feel confident he wouldn't have written were it not for the fact that his much loved sister is gay. He's certainly not known for his grasp of abstract issues. But when you think about it, there are a lot of people like Cohen out there, aren't there, and you have to wonder just how thrilled they are about Warren being warmly welcomed into the big tent. Cohen certainly doesn't seem to like it much.

And I wonder how all the families of the 18,000 Californians who are being forcibly divorced feel about it:

"Please don't divorce..." Courage Campaign community photo project

Infamous prosecutor Ken Starr has filed a legal brief -- on behalf of the "Yes on 8" campaign -- to nullify the 18,000 same-sex marriages performed in California between May and November of 2008.

It's time to put a face to Ken Starr's shameful legal proceedings. To put a face to the 18,000 couples facing forcible divorce. To put a face to marriage equality. Because, gay or straight, YOU are the face of the Marriage Equality Movement.

Please click through the photos in the slideshows below and then submit your own photo, as an individual, a couple or in a group (perhaps with your family over the holidays). Take a picture holding a piece of paper that says "Please don't divorce us," "Please don't divorce my moms,""Please don't divorce my friends, Dawn and Audrey," "Please don't divorce Californians" or whatever you want after "Please don't divorce..." and send it to: pleasedontdivorce@couragecampaign.org.